Sara Ylen pleads no contest in fake cancer, health care fraud case

9:11 AM, January 14, 2014

Sara Ylen sits with her wrists cuffed and her hands clasped, Monday, Jan 13, 2014, at the Sanilac County Courthouse in Sandusky, Mich. Ylen, who for years claimed she had end-stage cancer, pleaded no contest Monday to fraud in a scheme that had brought her widespread sympathy and financial support in small eastern Michigan communities. / Andrew Jowett/Port Huron Times Herald/AP

By Beth LeBlanc

Gannett Michigan

Dressed in orange, Sara Ylen sat with her hands clasped and cuffed before pleading no contest to health care fraud.

The 38-year-old Lexington woman pleaded no contest to two of six charges: obtaining more than $20,000 in services because of false pretenses of cancer and health care fraud stemming from a false statement.

Police arrested Ylen in May 2012. Police said Ylen received hospice care from 2009 to 2011 after falsely claiming she had cancer.

At her preliminary examination, witnesses said Ylen wore scarves around her head, and had been using a wheelchair. She accepted help with yard work and grocery bills. A hospice nurse testified she’d administered morphine to Ylen regularly.

A church fund-raiser generated more than $10,000 to help Ylen with her bills.

A 2012 police search of Ylen’s computer uncovered website URLs, documents, images and search terms suggesting Ylen had been researching the multiple myeloma she claimed to have. A friend testified she had found X-rays dated 2007 online that Ylen claimed were hers and had been taken at a 2009 appointment.

Police said none of the doctors Ylen had listed as having diagnosed her had actually done so. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is requesting $121,422.32 in restitution, Sanford said.

Obtaining more than $20,000 in services because of false pretenses is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, said Sanilac County Circuit Judge Donald Teeple. Health care fraud is punishable by up to four years.

Ylen will be sentenced in Sanilac County Circuit Court at 9 a.m. Feb. 19.

Ylen’s bond was revoked. She was taken back to the St. Clair County jail to await sentencing in a separate case. She will be sentenced in St. Clair County Circuit Court at 9 a.m. Friday. A jury found Ylen guilty in December of filing a false report of rape and tampering with evidence in 2012.

“Once she was convicted in that, there was nothing for her to gain by fighting it here,” Sanford said. He said Ylen’s sentences in St. Clair and Sanilac counties likely will be served concurrently.

In November 2012, James Grissom — a man convicted in 2003 of raping Ylen — was released from prison after nearly 10 years.

The Michigan Supreme Court granted Grissom a new trial after investigators found Ylen had made other unsubstantiated claims of rape.

Prosecutors requested the case be dismissed because of the new evidence and the length of time since the incident.

Ylen’s lawyer, David Heyboer, declined comment.

AT A GLANCE

AT A GLANCE

SARA YLEN CASE

2001: Ylen says she was sexually assaulted by James Grissom in the Ft. Gratiot Meijer parking lot.